Italian Futurism and Fashion

This chapter will analyze the role of Italian futurism in relationship with fashion from a socio-semiotic point of view, using fashion theory as a cultural critique. 1 I am going to focus especially on the relationship between art and society which is expressed by fashion as a “day-to-day aesthetic.” From Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s fi rst futurist manifesto in 1909 to the years of Fascism, how did futurism infl uence the Italian society through fashion? How did fashion represent an important link between Italian futurism and the other European avant-gardes? Did futurism infl uence post-war Italian style, or did the latter rise in opposition to the former